D’Best of D’Antoni

Mike D’Antoni won’t be on the bench Tuesday night when the Lakers host the Spurs. He’s still healing from knee surgery, and, besides, his mind needed to sit out the game, too.

It would have been inhumane to welcome him back to the Western Conference against the franchise that had tormented him as no other.

But it’s also possible his Phoenix days will always resonate as the best of his career. He ran his system then, with happiness coming in 7-seconds-or-less, and only at the end was he compromised.

Everything since has been about money, superstars and ill-fitting rosters.

D’Antoni lost rings because of the Spurs, but not income. After the final failure against his nemesis — punctuated by the Tim Duncan 3-pointer in the 2008 playoffs — D’Antoni moved on and found in New York what he found Monday in Los Angeles. A 4-year contract worth about $6 million a year.

He also found the same big-market dynamic. Just as the Knicks had the league’s highest payroll then, the Lakers do now.

In many ways, D’Antoni is a fit in L.A. He’s never been one for developing a bench, and the Lakers don’t have one. He will reunite with Steve Nash, albeit an older one, and Kobe Bryant has been a D’Antoni fan since his days as a boy living in Italy.

Then there’s Dwight Howard: D’Antoni got an aging Superman at the end in Phoenix, and now he gets one in his prime.

But the Lakers will be closer to 17-seconds-or-less. These Lakers aren’t running the way the Suns did, no matter what Nash does, and the Lakers will be pressed on the other end, too. If Mike Brown, a defensive specialist, couldn’t get the Lakers to play defense, how can D’Antoni?

Lakers fans chanted, “We want Phil,” before D’Antoni was hired. And, with every stumble this season, the same sentiment will rise up in L.A.

D’Antoni will win some games, though. And with the talent he has, who knows? The Lakers are capable.

Still, the guy who averaged 58 wins in his four full seasons in Phoenix, who was coach of the year, and who was hailed for making the game fun to watch, isn’t coming back. And that’s why even the worst memories of Phoenix — from a Joe Johnson injury to a Robert Horry hip check — might remain the best ones for D’Antoni.